Apocalypse Now story
Apocalypse Now is a 1979 American epic war film about the Vietnam War, directed, produced and co-written by Francis Ford Coppola. It stars Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall, Martin Sheen, Frederic Forrest, Albert Hall, Sam Bottoms, Laurence Fishburne, and Dennis Hopper. Harrison Ford also makes an appearance in a small role. The screenplay, co-written by Coppola and John Milius and narration written by Michael Herr, was loosely based on the 1899 novella Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad. The setting was changed from late 19th-century Congo to the Vietnam War. The film follows a river journey from South Vietnam into Cambodia undertaken by Captain Benjamin L. Willard (a character based on Conrad's Marlow and played by Sheen), who is on a secret mission to assassinate Colonel Kurtz (Brando, with the character being based on Conrad's Mr. Kurtz), a renegade Army Special Forces officer accused of murder and who is presumed insane.
11 total · 2 choice · 5 major · 4 minor
| Theme | Level | Motivation |
|---|---|---|
| military related work | choice | We saw what it might be like for various military personnel in various stages of their career and at various locations during the protagonist's trek up the Serepok river, visiting various allied outfits along the way. |
| the horrors of war | choice | point of the story seemed to be to show how gruesome, pointless, and terrifying things can get during a war |
| descent into madness | major | we heard indirectly, and saw directly, some of the process that turned Kurtz from being a model soldier into a ruthless war criminal |
| leadership | major | we saw Kurtz making himself a Godlike figure, Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore being gung-ho, the catastrophic absence of COs on two occations, as well as Chief aboard the patrol boat, and hands-off Captain Benjamin himself |
| ruthlessness to quicken the end of the war | major | we heard, time again, that Kurtz' methods were abhorent but effective |
| the end justifies the means | major | Kurtz was to some extent excused being ruthless because he seemed to get the job done |
| the Vietnam War | major | the story was staged on the Vietnam war scene and we heard much indirectly and directly about the circumstances of the conflict |
| coming to terms with one's own death | minor | Kurtz was apparently anticipating and permitting his own assassination. |
| coping with the death of someone | minor | Some comrades in arms mourned when their fellows aboard the patrol boat perished. |
| facing a ferocious beast | minor | the protagonists were confronted by a tiger at one point |